A Different Will
by Yassen IS SEXY
Summary: What happens if when Halt finds Will he is entirely different. what if he is cold and ruthless and has been killing for money to help evanlyn and himself survive? will Halt still accept him? And what if Halt never told him a secret about Will's father?
1. Chapter 1

**okay some one suggest on my other story that i put lines in between paragraphs and space out the lines because it is easier to read so Iam going to try it on this one. reviewe in the end to tell me if you want me to continue writing them like this. oh and this is only my second fanfic...**

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**Halt**

Halt sighed as he looked around. There was still no sign of Will. He did not know what to do. He could spend months looking for Will, Will could

be anywhere. Halt felt a total failure, how could he havelost something so close to him. He had lost Will, his own apprentice. Halt shook his head. 

_And he does not even know…_ , Halt thought.

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**Horace**

Horace watched Halt carefully. Something was definitely bothering him. He looked…depressed. Horace knew Halt blamed himself for Will

getting kidnapped. Even though it was not Halt's fault. No one could havestopped them. And Gilan. Horace looked over at the young ranger. He

also blamed himself. He thought he should have stayed behind. That it was his job, his duty. And that he had abandoned Will.

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_ I should not have left Will. He could be here now with us. Halt would not be in exile and Horace would not have ran away from Battle school to help _

_ **Gilan**_

_find Will. It is all my fault. I abandoned my duty. And I abandoned __my __friends. __I am worthless. And Halt blames himself for all that I have done wrong, _

_telling me I did what I should have done, _Gilan thought. Suddenly Gilan became aware of a new presence. "Halt." Gilan said in a low whisper.

He knew his old mentor would catch on immediately. The figure moved again. He was high up in the trees. _Then again it could just be an _

_animal...Well better safe than sorry,_ Gilan thought ruefully.

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Halt jerked his head up when Gilan called his name. He noticed the movement in the trees that had worried Gilan. He picked up his

longbow and nocked an arrow. A figure of small stature dropped from the trees. Hewore a cloak with a deep cloak and boots made of soft leather.

He had made no sound as he dropped. He was obviously trained to be very silent. Another thing Halt noticed was the dagger in his right hand.

and in his left a saxe knife. Both these knives looked very similiar to his own, Halt noticed

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"You should not have come here.", He stated. His voice they noticed had an Araluen accent. "And who are you to tell us where we should and

should not go?" Halt said angrily. No one was going to stop him fromfinding his apprentice. "Just trust me Halt you should not have come here.",

The figure said. Halt froze there was something eerily familiar about this young man. _And how did he know my name_, Halt thought. "nor should you

have brought Gilan and Horace. You all have your duties and none of them lie here anymore. Well actually you have one. There is a girl up in the

mountain. She goes by the name of Evanlyn. We both know her real identity though. Evanlyn needs to go back to Araluen. Forget everything

else." the figure continued.

Halt, Gilan, and Horace stared in awe at the man in front of them. How did he know so much, he knew them all by name. And he knew

Cassandra's identity. "Who are you?" Gilan asked curiously. Thequestioned seemed to pain the young man. "That doesn't matter, just get the girl

and leave! You don't belong here.", the young man said his tone ominous and full of pain. He turned to leave , but Halt sent an arrow intothe tree

next to him. "Do you know where the boy is? There should have been a boy with the girl do you know where he is?", Halt asked. The young man

just stood there for a while before he answered. "The boy is gone,he changed Halt. He will not ever be the same. It would be better if you just

left him." the young man answered. Halt stared before realizing something. "Put down your hood. Just do it." Halt commanded in a soft voice.

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The young man looked at them for a long time. He opened his mouth to say something, but shut it immediately. He kept shifted his weight

from one foot to the other and clenching and unclenching his hands. His posture made them think he was in deep thought as to do as Halt said or

to run like hell and hope he got away. In the end he made his decision, he raised up his hands and pushed back his hood. Halt, Gilan, and Horace

gasped in surprise. Because in front of them stood a young man with tousled brown hair and haunted brown eyes. As changed as the figure's

expression was, it was undoubtedly Will.

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**Okay you could have probably guessed what was going to happen and who the young man was. please tell me if i have made any mistakes. oh and please review!! thanx**

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	2. Chapter 2

**okay a lot of things will be revealed in this chapter. it is also my longest chapter ever so yeah! **

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"Will?",Halt breathed._ No it can not be him. His eyes, they are so cold, so empty. Please do not let it be my Will, _Halt mentally begged_. _The young man did not answer, but when Halt spoke he seemed to be in immense pain. The young man stared at them. Finally he replied. "Yes, it is me. I have changed, Halt. I have done things that will no longer allow me to continue my training."

_"What do you mean Will? What could you have done that is so bad? That would cause to get expelled from the Corps.?" Halt asked. He looked at his apprentice. He was different, he had grown taller. He was only a few inches below average height. He had hard toned muscle. And an expressionless face. _

"I do not wish to talk about it at this moment." Will stated plainly. Gilan and Horace remained silent throughout the conversation. Both of them were to shocked to utter a word. Neither of them could believe what they were seeing or hearing. Gilan was the first to realize their minds were not playing tricks on them.

"Will come with us, we can work out everything later. Please Will, we won't leave and will take you by force if we have too." Gilan stated, pleading through half of it and demanding through the rest.

Will looked at all of them. Halt was concerned as was Gilan. But Horace was still trying to figure out what was going on. He had to bite back a smile at that. Horace had never been the brightest person in the world. He still cared about them all. But there was no way they could ever understand what he had gone through. All the pain, the way he had lost all feeling and become numb. They had never been forced to do what he had. He didn't want them to.

"I will go with you. And perhaps I will tell you what has happened."Will said._ The shortened, edited version of what happened to me that is, Will thought. _Gilan smiled, Horace finally caught on and smiled. And even grim old Halt smiled. But none of that mattered right now, because all he could think of was what he was going to have to tell them.

"Let's go get the Princess" Horace said cheerfully. With that Will smirked, and went to reclaim Tug. They set off at a comfortable pace.

When they were nearly there Will called a break. "_Evanlyn_ will not expect anyone for at least a week. So all of us showing up suddenly at the doorstep would shock her. I was think-"Will began but was cut off by Gilan. "If you think we are going to let you go anywhere without us you are wrong!"Gilan said angrily. Will shook his head, Gilan usually did not jump to conclusions so quickly.

"No I was not suggesting that I go alone. I was suggesting that when we get there I go in first to warn her. But until then we have time on our hands. And by the looks of the sky we should probably seek shelter." Will said quickly, ever fearful of being interrupted. The rest nodded their consent to this plan.

"So, does anyone know where the nearest inn is?", Horace asked quietly. And everyone froze. Where was the nearest inn? "I know where it is. It is only an hours ride from here. So I guess I'll just lead the way!" Will said cheerfully. He knew exactly what inn to go to. The one he was supposed to be at in two hours. He really did not want to take care of the business he had to do there, but he would have to endure it for everyone's sake.

**One Hour Later**

"Um, Will?", Gilan began, "Doesn't this place seem a little expensive?" Not that he really minded. He could probably afford the room rate. "No, besides I can handle all of this. Besides wait until you see the rooms. Oh, and we will only be staying for one night. After that it would be best to get _Evanlyn_ and leave as quickly as possible." Will said quite cheerfully. The others just stared at him.

"Uh Will, you have stayed here before?" Horace said in awe. Will looked at all there faces. They were all wondering how he could afford to and how he had escaped. He sighed as he realized he have to tell them later tonight about everything. "Yes, multiple times. Last time I was here I stayed for about a month. That is fairly long for me. It's not exactly smart to stay at one place for a long amount of time..." Will trailed off as he noticed the stares he was getting. Will groaned and began to lead his horse to the stables.

After the horses were taken care of they went inside the Inn. Right as they walked Will was greeted by first name and handed four room keys by a cheerful middle-aged woman. Will turned around and handed them each a key. They were then led to their rooms by a young girl who could not have been more than fourteen. "The four rooms right here are yours Will. And they will be waiting in the room in about twenty minutes" She said. "Thank you Sarah." Will replied.

"I assume you can mange on your own. Dinner will be in two hours. I will not be there . I have...business to attend to. I will not return until an hour after dinner. I will explain a lot then." Will said distantly. His mind was already shutting down in preparation of what he had to do. "What kind of business do you have here? And who is going to be waiting?"Gilan demanded. Will had really been getting on his nerves. Everything he did left another new question and every answer

he had gave them was frank and did not really answer the question. But this time Will had just looked at them and shook his head. He then promptly left.

"So does anyone have a clue as to what Will is doing down there in the 'meeting'? It all sounds too fake and planned to be real.", Horace said irritably. He did not like the way Will was acting either. There was just something to suspicious about him. " I know what you mean, I do not know if we should trust him or not. He has definitely changed.", Gilan said worriedly.

" I really do not want to do this,but maybe Gilan and I should follow him. Horace I am sorry but you can not come with because you are not as quiet as us." Halt said sadly. _Something is not adding up here_, Halt thought, _I can not understand him. I can't understand my own-_. Halt was suddenly drawn from his thoughts as Gilan said, "Well if we are going to follow him we better get going."

Gilan and Halt snuck down the main room downstairs. To their surprise they found Will sitting at a table with three very ruthless looking men. They got as close as they dared and listened.

"This should be easy for you Will. The targets name is Lucas Wright. He is a dealer of warmweed and we all know of your hatred towards people who sell that stuff. Go in and kill him. Take care of any witnesses as well." Man One said. "We also understand that this might be your last mission with us. You will be allowed to leave, but it would be best that we never cross paths again." Man Two said. Man Three stayed silent and never spoke, he looked like he did not really want to be there. And without any hint the meeting was over they all left.

Will sighed. At the moment the door opened and Evanlyn entered. Will stood up shocked. "Evanlyn-"Will began. "it's alright they didn't see me. Is it over Will? Are we going home?" Evanlyn said softly as if she was trying to comfort him. "Yes, Evanlyn it's almost over. I have a few hours before I have to leave. I should probably explain everything to Halt, Gilan, and Horace." Will said tiredly. Evanlyn nodded and followed him as he left the room.

Gilan and Halt just barely made it back to the rooms before Evanlyn and Will. "Horace, where are you?" Gilan said hurriedly. They both turned around in defensive positions as the door opened. It was Will,Evanlyn, and Horace. Will took one look at them and asked "How much did you hear and what do you want to know?"

"You are an assassin. Your target's name is Lucas Wright. This is supposed to be your last mission. And we want to know everything else." Halt rattled off. Will looked at them and went to sit down in one of the chairs by the fireplace in the room.

"Very well, I will tell you everything. Sit down get comfy its going to take a while. And there are to be no interruptions I want to get this over with as quick as possible." Will said. When they had all sat down Will began.

"When we were first brought to Skandia we were separated. Evanlyn did inside work. But I got the yard. Many people do not survive the yard. If you disobey the older ones' authority you will get the paddles. The paddles are a way to break someone. There is a big well outside in the winter it freezes over. There are two long paddles, you are to use those to break the ice. By the time your turn is over you are soaked and standing in freezing temperatures. You end up battling hypothermia."

"It was after this time, that they come to you. You are given warmweed. You have no choice of whether or not to use it. It is use it or die. After you use it , you become addicted suddenly its all you can think about. You are easier to control and are pretty much a zombie. You do your work and you hope you did it good enough to get another fix. The drug becomes the only thing that matters to you. I don't know what happened next. I can't remember. The next thing I remember I was in a cabin up on a mountain. I was weak. Too weak to survive, to fight."

These people came. They told me I could join them or they could kill Evanlyn and me. I chose to join. They built my strength back up. They turned me into a killer. I hated it at first. The pain. I did not want to kill. When I tried to leave they caught Evanlyn. I was ordered to come back or they would torture and kill her. I came back. I helped Evanlyn escape. They still do not know where she is. But they did not care because they had me."

"I was paid to kill. Its how I have survived and kept Evanlyn alive. I regret it all. I hate it all. There is little chance I will ever be the same. I will always have the memories to haunt my every second awake or asleep. I can't sleep for long amounts of time, because the nightmares get so bad. I know I will never be allowed to continue my training so it is best you leave me here."

With that he stood up to leave, but Halt stopped him. "Don't go. You can continue your training you have not killed any Araluens." Halt said softly. Will nodded. "I have to leave now." Will said regret and pain filling his voice. He tore away from Halt's hands and left.

_ How could I let my own son go through that, _Halt thought sadly_, I am his father, and I let him go through all that pain. I left him in a ward to grow up, then lost him when I could finally be with him._

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**okay so Will is an assassin but ireally wanted to make him one. I mean think about all those ranger skills and he is stranded. And Will is Halt's son. I really just wanted Halt and Will to be Father and son. sorry if this chapter didn't turn out like you wanted it to. _Please Review!!!_** **Thanks!** ** :D**


	3. Chapter 3

**I am so so so so so Sorry!!! I entirely forgot about this story!!!!! But don't worry I am updating it now!!! I hope you like it and don't hate me!!! Thank you to those who reviewed and to those who reminded me!!!!**

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**Will's POV**

Will watched his target sit at his big desk in his study. He normally closed and locked is study door. But this time Will had snuck in before he had and was now hidden in one of the dark the vast room. He waited for the light that was shining under the door from the hallway to go out. Finally it did. The guard would have to go get his replacement guard and during that time the Target would die. Never think of him as a person, because then you won't be able to kill him, you'll have second thoughts. That was what he had been taught. And now he had to put his skills to use. A quick stab into the jugular with a nice sharp knife that he had at hand or slit his throat and leave him to bleed out. Or he could stab him in the head. He chose to slit the man's throat. He moved forward and unsheathed the knife. The Target looked up in alarm. "Who are-" He started and never finished because at that moment Will chose to slide his knife across his throat and blood gushed out. Will then broke his neck just for good measure. " No one important." Will murmured in answer to the unfinished question.

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**Halt's POV**

"How long could this take? And why did I let him go? I should have stopped him!!" Halt grumbled. Gilan shook his head. "I highly doubt you could have stopped him, Halt. Now would you please stop pacing it's driving me insane. Not that it was a long drive, but still! You need to stop, when he gets back we can work some of this out." Gilan pleaded. Halt looked at Gilan. "how can this turn out okay? How can we work some of this out?! He's my son and I never told him! I lied to him for seventeen years! And now he's probably hurting because of all this and I still can't tell him! All I can do is sit back and watch him go off to kill some one else!" Halt hissed at poor Gilan. Gilan's mouth hung open. "Your son?" He whispered. Halt didn't answer he just continued pacing.

They sat quietly or paced quietly for another hour. Horace eventually nodded off and abruptly woke up when halt started talking. "Are you hurt? Did everything go okay? How could you do that Will!" Halt said his voice near hysterical "you sound exactly like Evalyn. Concerned, but still willing to yell at me." Will murmured. And suddenly a dark chuckle escaped his lips. They just stared at him. Had he really just compared Halt to a girl? But worse than that a princess. Will looked around him." Speaking of her, where is she?" Will asked of no one in particular. They all froze. Where had she disappeared to? Will sighed and went off to look for her.

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**Will's POV**

When he found her she was lying in bed and looked like she was sleeping. But she sat up when she heard him enter. "You're back. Are you hurt? Normally I'd yell at you, but I'm too tired." She whispered drowsily. "Go back to sleep. I'll wake you up early in the morning so we can leave for Aralen. Can you believe it? We are finally going back." Will whispered his voice gentler than she had heard it in a while. She nodded softly and started to drift off. Will smiled and left her to sleep, she would need iot they had a long day ahead of them.

"She's sleeping now. We should all get some rest. We won't have any visitors, so we don't need to do a watch. I'll answer your questions once I've gotten some sleep." Will said and went to his room to sleep. "Good night to you too." Gilan said sarcastically.

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**So I hoped you liked it. It was short, but I was hurrying. Sorry for any mistakes! Please review it's nice to know some one's reading. ~Alexa**


	4. Chapter 4

_**Ugh okay so I used to want to update every week, but since school has started that is nearly impossible. Updates will be about a few weeks apart now. I will get them in as quickly as I can, but I have lots of things to do.**_

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They had been riding since dawn and Will still hadn't answered any of there questions, Gilan was thoroughly annoyed by now.

"Are you going to answer any of our questions Will?" Gilan grumbled. Will mentally groaned. Why did Gilan have to be so persisting. "Fine, if only to get you to stop whining." Will hissed. The killing last night had put him in a bad mood. Evalyn had been able to get the others away and warn them, but Gilan had been to busy harassing Will for answers. Will brought his horse to a halt near a bit of trees he decided they could use for cover tonight and the rest followed suit.

"What do you want to know, Gilan?" Will sighed.

"Why are you so grumpy?" Gilan asked.

"I could ask you the same thing." Will murmured. Gilan frowned at not getting his question answered and started to open his mouth when Will held up a hand. "Killing makes me grumpy and very irritable and if you don't believe me ask Evalyn she saw some of the worst." Will continued.

"Who do you work for?" Gilan asked curiously.

"People. Mostly whoever pays me. But I get my information from a man named George and another man named Nathan. I don't know their last names or anything else about them. For a while I was on a island off the coast training, with a group. I wasn't the youngest." Will replied his face closing off and becoming an expressionless mask. Gilan held back a shudder at how cold Will had just become.

"What do mean you weren't the youngest? How young was the youngest?" Halt asked in horror.

"The youngest had to be eight or nine. Here's the thing Halt no one suspects a child. They think they are innocent and sweet. they would never even begin to imagine that they would be capable of killing ruthlessly. So they become a useful and lethal weapon. But they are still children. Killing scares them and they are forced to kill. Many cannot sleep. While I was there I saw a ten year old commit suicide and was not allowed to stop him." will whispered his voice barely a whisper. They all stared at Will what had will been put through? Had he been unable to sleep? It would make sense do to the fact they still hadn't seen him sleep and his eyes were bloodshot. No one said anything after that they just started setting up a campsite.

Will froze, that sound. There it was again. It was light footsteps, a trained assassin? Or was it merely one of his companions? Best find out. Will slowly got up and looked around. He heard the hiss of metal being unsheathed and spun around to find some one he had not expected to see standing there. It was his mentor from the island and he looked very disappointed.

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_**What should happen next… anyways Please review! ~ Alexa**_


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you to my Reviewers you guys are amazing!!!! And here is the next chapter it's kinda short but i really wanted to cut this chapter off right there...**

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"Will you really disappoint me. I expected so much of you. You could have been one of the best you already were the second best. But no you had to allow emotions to get in the way to cloud your thinking. What could another life of killing give you that this one couldn't? You were so good not like all those others I tried to train and they all failed they either died, committed suicide, or ran away. And no here you go running away from your past just like the others and you have to die, not now no that would be too easy. I want to make you fear me. I'll leave you to wait for me too come and when you finally let your guard-" Sadly Will's old mentor insane rant was cut short by a knife in the throat followed by an arrow through the middle of his head.

The others stared on in horror at Will. Will sighed. "I told you killing makes me irritable, but I do believe he is an exception to that. Because oddly enough I feel very nice and tolerable right now." Will said with a small smile.

"Uh…" Was the response from every one but Halt who just stared.

"Will won't they come looking for him?" Halt asked.

"No when you leave on a mission and don't come back they just find some one to replace you. They don't care. No one does in that type of business because caring means death possibly to yourself and probably to those you care about." Will replied suddenly grim again as if remembering some bad memory.

"How were you recruited?" Gilan asked.

"They had sent some scouts to look for promising trainees and I got found when I was fighting in the yard. They decided I had potential and caught me talking to Evalyn and kidnapped her. They used her to get me to work for them after that I went through various tests and apparently I did well on them, because next thing I knew they were moving me up and to train with the insane man over there." Will gestured to the dead man, "Never found out his name. We didn't have them there it was too dangerous so you went by codenames. He was called Bear. My codename was Panther. Mainly the names were animals and insects, but others were more creative." Will explained

They all just nodded barely able to fully understand. Evalyn on the other hand watched Will with sad eyes. It had been very hard on him. Those carefree smiles and laughs she hadn't seen those in quite awhile. And now the closest he got to a smile was a small, sad smile. It worried her. But what worried her more was the way he was trying to cover it up. She would have to talk to Halt.

Unfortunately Halt had just decided he needed to talk to Will and had led him away from the group.

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**Halt POV**

"Will this is important and I need you not to interrupt until the end. I wanted to tell you about this for such a long time and I figured that if I ever told you, you would hate me and run away. But when you were taken I thought I had lost my chance. Will I lied to you about your father. Daniel did exist and he did save my life, but he wasn't your father Will I am. When you were born your mother died. I knew nothing of how to car for a baby. I couldn't give you the life you needed, so I gave to the Baron and asked him to care for you as a ward. He agreed of course. But I watched over you and when it was right and I realized you had the potential I took you as my apprentice. I'm sorry I didn't tell you Will I just didn't know how." Halt said softly.

Will stared at him. "You're my father?"

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**Hmm well this could go many ways. The question is which way will I choose? Anyways PLEASE Review and thank you to all the reviewers. You guys are the reason I updated so quickly!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Okay guys no I am not abandoning this story I like writing it too much to do that, but sadly I am having really bad writer's block so if some one could give me a suggestion to help this story get moving again I would really love it. This chapter is **_**extremely short**_** but couldn't think of really anything to put in it. Please help me out. ~ Alexa**

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Will stared at him. "You're my father?", Will asked.

Halt nodded it was all he was capable of at the moment. He was terrified that Will would reject him.

Will slowly sat down. All of this was so shocking to him. He had thought that his father was dead that he would never get to meet him but really all along his father had been

alive and watching over him. Halt was his father. And will realized that beyond the shock and pain of being lied to in that way he was happy. Exuberant in fact, he had a father,

someone to look up to, some one who cared about him. He had a family. He smiled his sad smile.

Halt watched Will think about everything that had happened and the things he had just found out and saw that small smile form on that face. He watched Will stand up and walk

to stand in front of him. And then Will hugged him. At first he was still to shocked to do anything but stand there, but then he returned the hug with the same amount of warmth

and love that Will had. And Halt knew everything would be all right.

They both let go of each other and stepped back.

Will stared at Halt after that and then sighed. Well at least he knew now… and then a sudden thought popped into his head. He grinned, well smiled sadly.

"Well that explains where my lack of height came from." Will said with a now blank face.

Halt glared. _Why that little…, _Halt thought.

"And now before you regret your decision to tell me let's go back to the others. After all even with Gilan and Horace there they are still easy pickings for the people I used to

work with." Will said now back to his now normal serious self.

Halt blinked. Easy pickings? But surely they cant be that good…, Halt thought. And then followed Will who was already quickly covering the distance between them and the camp

where the others were. Halt found this odd since usually it was Will catching up to him. He shook his head, a lot had changed about Will since they had last been in Araluen .

Once they were back at the camp and separated Evalyn dragged Halt aside.

"Will isn't like what he used to be. The killing it changed him a lot. Lately his depression has been getting deeper though. It worries me. He smiles less and less and tends to look

off and lose his focus. And when he talks he tone is guarded like he's afraid to let us see what's going on his head. He needs help Halt. And I think you may be the only one able

to help him." Evalyn said keeping her voice low but still urgent and demanding attention.

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**I said it was going to be short. Well please help me out and hopefully this writer's block will go away…**

**~Alexa**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello my faithful readers! I'm back and that icky writers block is gone! Her is the newest chapter!**

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"Will, we need to make camp. This should do." Halt called out. After Evalyn had talked to Halt, Will had decided they needed to move on. Just incase some were still following them. After traveling for a while it had become obvious that they were being followed by six assassins. They had now been traveling for a week and should reach the coastline soon.

Will sighed. He didn't want to stop. They had gotten far ahead of the assassins, but what if during the night they caught up? They were closed to the coastline, so close. He wanted to push through the night, but he knew the others were exhausted and truthfully he was too. But he wanted to put this behind him so bad. He wanted to forget this, like it was a bad dream. No matter what he did though, he knew he couldn't. this had darkened his thoughts for a while. Could he ever be who he was before? He wasn't blind. He saw the looks of terror and some of disgust when he got like this. But the one that annoyed him the most was the sympathy and the hurt. Halt and Gilan blamed themselves for what had happened to Will. Will knew this. But he also saw their lost looks and quiet discussions about what to do with him. How to help him. He shook his head. They would make camp.

They slowly made camp. Halt had already decided no fire. He knew the chances that the assassins would see it were too great of a risk. This unfortunately meant no coffee. Which didn't please any of the rangers. Halt being his normal self took first watch. Gilan would take second, Will third and Horace would take the last.

"_Will!" She screamed. He looked over at her. Terror filled her eyes. Will wiped his knife on the man's clothing. _

"_It had to be done, Evalyn. If I hadn't killed him, he would have sold us out. They can't know where we are anymore. You know that Ragnak knows who you are; he swore a vallasvow against you. Do you not understand what that means?" Will said calmly._

_Cassandra nodded, but tears ran down her cheeks. She didn't want this to go on any longer. She just wanted to go home._

"_I want to go back to Araluen." She screamed. She broke down sobbing._

_She looked up and all she saw standing there was a cold figure. Will was gone. He had changed and become the way he was now. She stared into his cold, heartless eyes and understood. He had given up hope a long time ago._

"Princess! Wake up!" Gilan said while gently shaking her. She had been crying in her sleep, sobbing really.

Evalyn sat up quickly and began to wipe away her tears.

"Are you-"

"I'm fine."

Gilan shook his head he knew she wasn't fine, but he obviously was only going to upset her further by pressing for answers.

"You need to be quiet." Will said suddenly appearing beside them.

Gilan threw him a glare. Will just looked back at Gilan with a cold indifference. Will turned around at the same time Halt sat up.

HALT POV

Halt instantly woke up to the sound of sobbing. He heard it stop quickly and had heard the exchange between Gilan and Evalyn. He had also heard Will tell them to be quiet. He sat up at that. Will had seemed fine and opening up more recently. Now, however, he was withdrawing and becoming cold and distant. He needed to talk to him about it.

"Will. We need to talk." Halt said softly.

"Not now. There isn't time. People are following us. If I had my way we wouldn't have stopped. They have caught up and her sobbing and Gilan practically yelling when he talked to her just alerted them to where we are. Get ready to go, we need to leave now." Will said coldly and walked away. He began to gather his things while the others just stood there.

"I don't know what you are waiting for, but I for one do not have a death wish. Either get moving o I'm leaving now." He hissed.

They all glared, but started moving quickly. Horace who had just woken up followed everyone else.

"Who is following us? I thought no one would come looking for that guy." Gilan said gruffly.

"They aren't. They just decided I know too much and that there is a chance I've told you information. It won't matter soon. Once we are in Araluen they won't bother us. We will be on familiar ground and have protection enough. Once we get to Araluen, this will be in the past." Will stated.

"Won't they follow us? Eventually?" Horace asked.

"No, I had friends there. They are taking care of the training facility. Once they have been weakened, it will take them more than the time we have left in our lives to rebuild and come after us. Because once you've failed, you can never be what you were before." Will said his voice growing gentler as he continued. They saw his eyes soften just for a moment and saw Will begin to hope. His mask went up again quickly after though, but he didn't stop staring into the distance. They looked up; the coastline of the sea was just visible. They realized what he was thinking. They were on their way home. Will hadn't let himself hope before let alone believe that they would actually make it this far. And now that they had made it this far Will had begun to hope that he might make it home.

"We still need to find a way to make it home and we still have to travel through the countries and go through who knows what, but for now at least it'll be fine." Gilan said softly.

"That's not true. Because the people following us haven't stopped. We still are waiting. That's all we can do is wait. Wait for them to attack and be ready. Once they are gone, then that will be true." Will said and smiled softly.

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**Writers block is gone! There is going to be around two chapters after this. Review!**

_**Alexa**_


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